Carpe Momentum - where the result really didn't matter
18th out of 23 having shown very little on the way round is never usually much of a cause of relief, or celebration, even. However, the fact that CARPE MOMENTUM was even able to make a racecourse appearance has seemed very unlikely on at least two occasions in an already eventful past.
Previously known as Cast The Net and trained by Simon Magnier for one Richard Aylward, he appeared in the 2002 Derby entries as far as the second - £9,000 - entry stage, his owner adamant that his racecourse debut should be in the Epsom classic. That ambition was crushed when, three weeks before the race itself, the animal was gelded by mistake at Magnier's yard. Aylward was spared the compulsion of having to pay the second entry stage fee by the BHB, but became a disqualified person some time later for not having paid the initial entry fee of £9,000 either.
Cast The Net had come into the ownership of Seymour Reed by the spring of 2004, and, having been remaned Carpe Momentum and sent to Richard Guest, was entered in a Market Rasen bumper on May 9th. It was given that the horse would need a sound surface, and the projected good to firm seemed alright. However, the Lincolnshire track was lashed by heavy rain during the meeting, and another of Guest's inmates, the similarly fast ground-loving BOLTON BARRIE, was unable to cope with the increasingly skiddy conditions in the classified chase on the card, crashing through numerous fences on the way to a remote last place finish. Presumably pulled about physically by the experience, he has not raced for the yard since. Guest's response to the deteriorating conditions was to withdraw Carpe Momentum from the bumper and to save him for another day - a day which didn't come for another eighteen months.
Carpe Momentum appeared in no further declarations for the yard after the Rasen episode, and nothing more was heard until articles in both the News of the World and Racing Post in April of this year. Aylward had decided to sue Guest and Reed for unlawful re-sale and ownership of Carpe Momentum, despite his being banned effectively removing his right to the title (in all senses of the word) to the horse. Reed, it is claimed, had acquired the rights to the horse by repaying all outstanding training fee monies still owed to Simon Magnier by Aylward, and had sent the horse to Guest once everything - as far as these parties were concerned - had been cleared up money-wise.
The non-appearance of the horse even in declarations since May 2004 was, according to Guest, due to him not being ready to race after that, so Reed had taken him home to recuperate. Aylward had put in an allegation of neglect against Reed and Guest subsequently, Carpe Momentum having allegedly been found in a Northumberland field in an advanced state of neglect, but the RSPCA had quoshed that claim in their own invesitgations of February 2005.
The latest postings in the Racing Post, dated April 2nd 2005, stated that Aylward would have to answer a request for further information from Guest and Reed's lawyers by April 29th, with a court hearing to follow on July 18th - 19th. Whilst I have found no details of this to date, it looks as if, as expected, the court found in favour of Guest and Reed, as the horse is now back in training without Aylward's name anywhere near it. Reed's name is also absent, so I wonder if he had had enough of the whole affair whatever the ultimate outcome. Guest is, for the time being at least, both trainer and owner.
More prosaic runs from the Brancepeth string resulted in fourth places for the returning SCONCED over 2m 5f at Sedgefield on Tuesday, and for ASSUMETHEPOSITION back over hurdles in a conditionals' race at Wetherby today.
Previously known as Cast The Net and trained by Simon Magnier for one Richard Aylward, he appeared in the 2002 Derby entries as far as the second - £9,000 - entry stage, his owner adamant that his racecourse debut should be in the Epsom classic. That ambition was crushed when, three weeks before the race itself, the animal was gelded by mistake at Magnier's yard. Aylward was spared the compulsion of having to pay the second entry stage fee by the BHB, but became a disqualified person some time later for not having paid the initial entry fee of £9,000 either.
Cast The Net had come into the ownership of Seymour Reed by the spring of 2004, and, having been remaned Carpe Momentum and sent to Richard Guest, was entered in a Market Rasen bumper on May 9th. It was given that the horse would need a sound surface, and the projected good to firm seemed alright. However, the Lincolnshire track was lashed by heavy rain during the meeting, and another of Guest's inmates, the similarly fast ground-loving BOLTON BARRIE, was unable to cope with the increasingly skiddy conditions in the classified chase on the card, crashing through numerous fences on the way to a remote last place finish. Presumably pulled about physically by the experience, he has not raced for the yard since. Guest's response to the deteriorating conditions was to withdraw Carpe Momentum from the bumper and to save him for another day - a day which didn't come for another eighteen months.
Carpe Momentum appeared in no further declarations for the yard after the Rasen episode, and nothing more was heard until articles in both the News of the World and Racing Post in April of this year. Aylward had decided to sue Guest and Reed for unlawful re-sale and ownership of Carpe Momentum, despite his being banned effectively removing his right to the title (in all senses of the word) to the horse. Reed, it is claimed, had acquired the rights to the horse by repaying all outstanding training fee monies still owed to Simon Magnier by Aylward, and had sent the horse to Guest once everything - as far as these parties were concerned - had been cleared up money-wise.
The non-appearance of the horse even in declarations since May 2004 was, according to Guest, due to him not being ready to race after that, so Reed had taken him home to recuperate. Aylward had put in an allegation of neglect against Reed and Guest subsequently, Carpe Momentum having allegedly been found in a Northumberland field in an advanced state of neglect, but the RSPCA had quoshed that claim in their own invesitgations of February 2005.
The latest postings in the Racing Post, dated April 2nd 2005, stated that Aylward would have to answer a request for further information from Guest and Reed's lawyers by April 29th, with a court hearing to follow on July 18th - 19th. Whilst I have found no details of this to date, it looks as if, as expected, the court found in favour of Guest and Reed, as the horse is now back in training without Aylward's name anywhere near it. Reed's name is also absent, so I wonder if he had had enough of the whole affair whatever the ultimate outcome. Guest is, for the time being at least, both trainer and owner.
More prosaic runs from the Brancepeth string resulted in fourth places for the returning SCONCED over 2m 5f at Sedgefield on Tuesday, and for ASSUMETHEPOSITION back over hurdles in a conditionals' race at Wetherby today.
posted by Jeremy Grayson @ 5:56 PM
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